Four paintings that were said to have “extraordinary value” have been taken from a museum in Italy.
Three of the paintings were panels from the Polyptych of San Gregorio, while the fourth was a double-sided panel of the Madonna with Child and Christ in Pietà, the BBC reported. They were taken from the Regional Interdisciplinary Museum of Messina on Aug. 15.
Police in Sicily are trying to determine how the thieves got into the museum without setting off alarms.
Italian news agency Ansa believes black-market art thieves took the paintings on order.
Antonella de Messina, an early Renaissance master painter, painted all of them.
The Madonna with Child and Christ in Pietà, painted for what some believe was private worship around 1473, was taken from a secure display case. It, along with the others, was on wooden panels, so it could not be easily rolled.
The Polyptych was painted in 1473 and was commissioned for the monastery of Santa Maria.
This is not the first heist making recent headlines.
Three paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse were recovered after police found them in a storage room of a home in Parma, Italy. The artworks, valued at more than $10 million, were stashed in an empty cardboard television box, The New York Times reported.
Grazie ai Carabinieri del Comando Tutela Patrimonio Culturale e del Comando Provinciale di Parma per il recupero delle tre opere di Cézanne, Renoir e Matisse sottratte alla Fondazione Magnani Rocca. Un’operazione che conferma l’eccellenza italiana nella Tutela. pic.twitter.com/0XQ2R1502R
— Alessandro Giuli (@AlessGiuli) August 14, 2026
They were taken from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation outside of Parma.
Five people have been arrested in connection with the March theft, the Times reported.
Historic jewels valued at more than $100 million were taken from the Louvre in Paris last October. Most of the jewels have not been recovered. Only one piece, an imperial crown that was dropped outside the museum, was returned.
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